Wednesday, April 21

Usually, my neighborhood is quiet without much crime. Once they found a dead homeless guy across the street but he wasn't murdered just unlucky in life. I live on the bottom of Nob Hill, about 5 blocks away from the beginning of the Tender Loin which is a bad neighborhood full of live sex clubs, bars and other places you wouldn't want to walk through. The trouble usually stays down there so it hasn't been a worry. Until now.

Sunday night one of my building's tenants, a woman was outside across the street. She got her purse taken by gunpoint and if that wasn't shocking enough we had to have our front (security gate) retooled because they also got her keys. So yesterday I received my new key and was glad to have it done so quickly before someone tried to get in and rob us or worse. Again!

I have lived here since 1998 and in all of that time, only one crack head cat burglar broke in (we still don't know how) gaining entrance to our roof. Lucky for me I was home that day watching TV because I heard someone running around in the then empty apartment upstairs from me. Then I heard someone on the fire escape so I walked into my kitchen to the window and got a real shocker!

My window (which I only leave open on top) was open on the bottom and as I got up to the window a girl appeared on my windowsill. First I saw her hands were empty as she was grabbing the sides of the window to get in and she had a huge backpack on so I grabbed the straps and yanked her in. This made her fall to the floor. Not knowing she was on crack she jumped up right away and the fight started. My kitchen knives where right there but I didn't feel like killing someone that day so we fought, knocking things over in the kitchen as I asked her who she was and what was she doing on the fire escape.

Her eyes told the whole story, her pupils huge as she mumbled; "I gotta get out of here!" Over and over, in fact, it sounded like a chant. Since she had been in the apartment above me and it was the same as mine she was pulling me towards my door to get out. I couldn't hold her so I let her go and dialed 911.

Wouldn't you know it there had been a policeman across the street and he had seen her coming in my window so he was already on his way here. The front door was being guarded so I figured she was hiding in our huge basement somewhere. By then the manager came to take over and they told me to stay put and went off looking for her. They didn't find her anywhere but I figured she was still in the building in the basement. They got my report on it and left.

Not much later the manager went to his workroom in the basement to get something and she was hiding in there and she jumped out at him. He started yelling at her and she walked up and slapped him in the face! I wasn’t there so I don’t know how he kept her until the cops came back but they came and took her off.

They came back later and had me pick her picture out of a "line up" on a piece of paper (not at the police station like on TV) and although she had her eyes all scrunched up in her mug shot I picked her out easily. Thank God I was home or my apartment would have been trashed and everything would have been taken.

I found out she had been in jail for this before, not only that but she had another woman who was in jail at the time and they had both been cat burglars for crack money together in this neighborhood and the surrounding area for a while! I thought it would be cut and dried. She would be in jail for a while this time. The police said she would get drug treatment which they didn't make her do last time.

When I got to court the first thing the prosecutor asked me was why I didn't shove her out of my window! There's a huge hole in fire escapes and I'm on the 4th floor which is why I didn't do it when she broke in. So I told him; "Yeah, that way I'd be in jail for manslaughter if she died when she hit the cement!" What assholes! I told him; "You know it's true!" So the prosecution decided they didn't want me involved in the court case and instead had our building manager do it.

This girl didn't get anything! I went to her last hearing and sat in the front row to make sure she saw me and when our eyes met I gave her a look she sure did understand! (I'll just let you imagine that one!) Then I heard her sentence and couldn't believe it! She had been in jail for 2 weeks by then. She only got a month in jail (time served included) so she was getting out in two weeks! And she didn't get any drug treatment program either! She wasn't even put on probation! OMG, my friends no wonder people keep breaking the laws over and over. It's because the state doesn't want to pay for them to get the treatment they really deserve so they keep getting off. Makes me ill!

Thank god I didn't shove her out of my window or it would have been me in jail I just know it!

So my nice neighborhood is getting worse, we have rent control and the courts are letting them do whatever they want so it's about time for Bekkie to move out of here and take her Wonderland somewhere better. Especially now that criminals are coming this far down with guns to rob us or worse!

Good-bye San Francisco I'm getting out of this place and moving to San Mateo. I will not pay $1,200.00 for an efficiency apartment where they are getting away with screwing us out of our last pennies while the rental court helps! When I moved in here it was only $735 a month! I'm done with it, time to move.

Sunday, April 18

Let me know how you do! If you can do ALL of them within 10 seconds you're doing great! Can you find ALL of them? No cheating now! (It should be easy!) The younger you are of course the better you should do. Wake up those brain cells and get cracking!

2- If you already found the C, now find the 6 below. 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 69999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

This is NOT a joke. If you were able to pass these three tests, you can cancel your annual visit to your neurologist. Your brain is great and you're far from having a close relationship with Mr. Alzheimer. Congratulations my friends!

I got this in an email and had to share it here. I did really well on it so here's to good brain health! I think genes have a little to do with it too. The main purpose is to have fun with it.

♦ CAN YOU READ THIS ♦

Eonvrye who can raed tihs rsaie yuor hnad!To my all my Network wonderful minded friends: If you can raed the flolnig pagarprah, tehn geart mdins not olny tnhik aklie, tehy wrok akile. Tihs is wried, but ieertntnisg.If you can raed tihs, you hvae an ieertntnisg mnid too. Can you raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. (Hrad to bleveie ins't it?) I cuold not blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to the rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy syas it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer of ecah wrod is in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sltill raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Brain training is good for you it keeps the sludge in your brain at bay. For more about brain training check out Luminosity.

Thursday, April 8

Alice: A little girl, around 7 years old. She has an amazing dream about changing size and meeting various strange creatures underground in Wonderland. Alice is curious, intelligent, trusting, and ready to accept the impossible. She can be quite bold; additionally, she tends to take herself seriously and sometimes has a rather quick temper.

White Rabbit: A rabbit wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch scampers past Alice at the beginning of the story. Alice follows the White Rabbit into Wonderland. The Rabbit is rather timid and nervous. He meets Alice again at his house and at the Queen's croquet-grounds where he serves as the herald at the trial of the Knave of Hearts.

Caterpillar: A large, blue, hookah-smoking caterpillar. He treats Alice with contempt and makes her angry, but he helps her to grow to the height she wants to be by telling her about the special properties of the mushroom he sits on.

Duchess: Hideously ugly in the illustrations by John Tenniel (who did all the art in the first book,) the Duchess is hostile when she first meets Alice, but quite pleasant later on. The Duchess believes that everything has a moral, and she speaks in moralizing clichés.

Cheshire Cat: The Duchess' perpetually grinning cat. The cat speaks to Alice, but not to anyone else in the story. He informs Alice that he is insane. The Cheshire Cat can disappear and reappear suddenly, he can disappear very slowly, and he can appear as just a floating head. 'Grins like a Cheshire cat' was a common saying in England when Alice was written.

March Hare: A hare who lives in a house shaped like a hare's head. The Mad Tea Party is held on his lawn. At the trial, he contradicts the evidence presented by the Mad Hatter. At the time Alice meets him, he has been mad for two months. Alice doesn't care for him. In Carroll's time, 'Mad as a march hare' was a common phrase alluding to the frenzied behavior of hares in March, their mating season.

Mad Hatter: A hatter who continually has tea with the March Hare and the Dormouse because for him it is always six o'clock (tea-time). He quickly offends Alice. Two months before meeting Alice, he gave a concert for the Queen that ended badly. He is called as a witness at the trial of the Knave he gave a concert for the Queen that ended badly. He is called as a witness at the trial of the Knave because many hatters did look like they were mad from exposure to mercury which was used to process hats.

Queen of Hearts: The savage, domineering queen whose realm includes the garden. She is constantly ordering her gardeners to paint white roses red. She is literally a playing card. She constantly issues orders to behead someone or other. Her favorite command is; "Off with their head!" Alice doesn't like her at all. The Queen sends Alice to meet the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle. At the trial, the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing her tarts.

The Gryphon And The Mock Turtle: A Gryphon is a mythical monster, part lion, and part eagle. This Gryphon takes Alice to meet the Mock Turtle and then ushers her off to the trial. He is amused by the illusions of other characters. He speaks with a Cockney accent and, like many of the other characters, he loves puns. Like the Mock Turtle, he is nostalgic about his days at school and he joins in the Lobster Quadrille. The Mock Turtle is always sad and depressed, and usually, he's sighing or sobbing. He used to be a real turtle, but now he's a mock turtle, which, as the Queen explains, is what mock turtle soup is made from. (Mock turtle soup is imitation green turtle soup and is often made from veal-hence John Tenniel's illustration of a turtle with a calf's head and hooves.) The Mock Turtle loves to reminisce about his schooldays, and he teaches Alice the Lobster Quadrille.Minor Characters:

Alice's sister: Alice's older sister, who reads a book without illustrations or dialogue while sitting on the bank with Alice at the beginning of the book. Alice falls asleep with her head on her sister's lap and has the dream about Wonderland. When Alice awakes, she tells her sister about her dream, and the book closes with her sister daydreaming about what Alice will be like as a grown-up.

Dinah: Alice's cat. Dinah never actually appears in Alice, but as Alice has her adventures she often misses Dinah or talks about her.

Mouse: A French mouse who falls into the pool of Alice's tears. He is easily offended. He tells Alice his tale, which appears in the book printed in the shape of a tail.

Mary Ann: The White Rabbit's maid. She never actually appears, but at one point the Rabbit mistakes Alice for Mary Ann.

Bill the Lizard: A hapless, somewhat stupid lizard. He first appears in the story when Alice, having grown huge, is blocking all of the entrances to the White Rabbit's house-the Rabbit sends Bill down the chimney, but Alice kicks him back out. Bill is also one of the jurors at the trial, where Alice takes away his chalk and accidentally stuffs him upside-down into the jury box.

Pig-Baby: The Duchess' ugly, squealing baby boy. Alice takes him from the Duchess to take care of him, but she lets him go when he actually turns into a pig before her eyes.

Cook: The Duchess' belligerent, violent cook. When Alice first sees her, she is making soup and using so much pepper that it fills the air of the Duchess' house. The cook is a hostile witness at the Knave's trial.

Dormouse: A guest at the Mad Tea Party. The Dormouse is always either asleep or falling asleep, despite the efforts of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare to keep him awake. The Dormouse tells Alice a story about three little girls in a treacle well. He appears again at the trial of the Knave of Hearts. (Dormice are nocturnal, hibernating rodents found in Europe and Britain. The word 'dormouse' is derived from the Latin dormire, which means 'to sleep.')

Three Gardeners: Three playing cards in the service of the Queen of Hearts. They are spades-numbers Two, Five, and Seven-who paint white roses red in an effort to cover up their mistake of planting the wrong kind of rose tree. They are placed under a sentence of execution by the Queen. King of Hearts: Kinder than his wife, the King of Hearts quietly pardons everyone who has been sentenced to death when the Queen leaves the croquet grounds. He serves as the judge at the Knave's trial, although he doesn't seem to know much about court proceedings.

Knave of Hearts: In the King and Queen's court processions, the Knave serves as a crown-bearer. He is tried for stealing tarts made by the Queen. Despite reasonable efforts to prove himself innocent, the King and the court are determined to pronounce him guilty.

There are some characters missing but then Lewis Carroll's writings had so many characters in them. His books had poems, art, moralizing clichés, sayings from his time and just so many good things it's no wonder his works are being redone in movies, art and everything else. He was an intelligent mathematician of his times and even with his migraines he took advantage of all of his facilities. I admire his strength and talents.

Thursday, April 1

It’s Spring and time to show off the cool new foot fashions for the upcoming hot season!

These are some incredible, unusual shoe designs and each pair is its own piece of art. You must give credit to the designers of these shoes for their vivid imaginations and wild ideas whether you can walk in them or not.

What is it about women that make them want to wear and walk in very uncomfortable shoes? I'm a woman and I don't know, I don't wear them. I'm an exception though.

As Nancy Sinatra once wrote; “And one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you! “

Pretty silly but such fun to look at what other people come up with when given one subject, such as ‘shoes.’

A Very Good Year The month of December has come to a close the weather has brought a new blanket of snow Christmas has faded fr...

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